I mean, we had Hillary's billing records (oh, sorry, they turned up out of the blue) (and a staffer was later found face down in the Potomac), laptops going missing at Ms. Albright's State Department, all sorts of interesting bits leaving our nuclear weapons labs for points east, and now Sandy Berger.

Bill Clinton will, in time, come to be seen not just as one of America's worst Presidents ever, but one of America's worst Americans ever.

Saturday, July 17, 2004

True to socialist reality, clicking on "Korean Cuisine" pops up a dialog box saying "please wait!" Even better, and totally in keeping with socialist reality, all you can do is click "OK". No complaints accepted here, comrade.

Update: clicking on "Korean Cuisine" now generates nothing at all. Even closer to socialist reality, I think.

Thursday, July 08, 2004

"You are an SRDL--Sober Rational Destructive Leader. This makes you a mob boss. You are the ultimate alpha person and even your friends give you your space. You can't stand whiners, weaklings, schlemiels or schlemozzles. You don't make many jokes, but when you do, others laugh out loud. They must.

People often turn to you for advice, and wisely. You are calm in a crisis, cautious in a tempest, and attuned to even the finest details. Yours is the profile of a smart head for business and a dangerous enemy.

You have a natural knack for fashion and occupy a suit like a matinee idol. Your charisma is striking and without artifice. You are generous, thoughtful, and appreciate life's finer things.

Please don't kick my ass."

Update: I took the test again as something about the "natural knack for fashion" struck me as off (trust me, damn you). This time I came in as a WRDL--Wacky Rational Destructive Leader. This makes me an enemy of the state.

Either way, it looks like I've got the "Rational Destructive Leader" thing down. All that varies is whether I hit you with a 9x19 or a polka-dotted plastic banana.

"In building the fence, the court rules, Israel violated international humanitarian law, by infringing on Palestinians' freedom of movement, freedom to seek employment, education and health.

It also states that Israel violated international treaties it had signed which deal with these topics: 'The construction of such a wall accordingly constitutes breaches by Israel of its various obligations under the applicable international humanitarian law and human rights instruments.'"

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi official heading the investigation into alleged corruption in the United Nations (news - web sites) oil-for-food program was killed in a bomb attack earlier this week, officials familiar with the probe said on Saturday.

Nick Berg is beheaded and the story is out of the news cycle within a day. Well, all except his father's rants against GWB. Got to keep on that Abu Ghraib thing, dontcha know.

The US removes two tons of uranium from Iraq, and it won't even make the news in the first place. Well, unless the US manages to spill it on some prisoners at Abu Ghraib, or contaminate a dolphin sanctuary, or somesuch.

You know, I sometimes think that freedom of speech will die in the US because the people who shout loudest about it do so only because they want to propagandize.

How's this going to play out? There'll probably be diplomatic pressure before November 2. After? Well, it's hard to say. If America can keep Iraq free and on a path to secular, pluralist republicanism, Iraq will become this beacon to the rest of the Arab world. Unfortunately, Iraq has the Wahabbis to the South, Ba'athists to the North, and the Mullahs to the east. Oh, and the Wahhabis sponsor radicalism, the Ba'athists probably have some of Saddam's WMD arsenal, and the Mullahs are working feverishly on The Islamic Bomb (TM).

Of course, the Saudi Royal Family may end up slaughtered in the streets, eaten by the alligator it tried to buy off. The ensuing chaos would take those guys out of the game for a while, and the departure of all the foreign workers - sorry, dirty kufrs - would certainly hamstring the inflow of oil money for a while.

Also, Boy Assad is just not his father, and has to worry about internal security. This would increasingly be a problem as Iraq grows in freedom and wealth. He might not be able to engage in foreign adventures, simply because he can't afford the risk.

Finally, we have the Mullahs. They're building their nukes, they're setting off bombs in Iraq. They have a populace that's increasingly tired of them.

Oh, one more thing. In case you didn't notice, the Intefada is over and Arafat lost. The wall the Israelis are building has cut violence to almost nothing where it's been completed. The Palestinians now have to make a choice between stewing in their own psychotic juices or joining the community of nations - the distraction of Jew-killing is increasingly unavailable.

So that old canard - fix the Israeli/Palestinian problem before anything else - is now off the table. Iraq now has regular diplomatic relations with the US. This is the point in time when one of the Islamic world's more psychotic nations has been caught in the process of trying to kill Americans.

Sunday, July 04, 2004

"My Lords, I am an old man, and will advise the noble Lords now in office, to adopt a more gentle mode of governing America; for the day is not far distant, when America may vie with these kingdoms, not only in arms, but in arts also. It is an established fact that the principal towns in America are learned and polite, and understand the constitution of the British empire as well as the noble Lords who guide the springs of government; and consequently, they will have a watchful eye over their liberties, to prevent the least encroachment of an Arbitrary Administration on their hereditary rights and privileges."